Information for Victims in Large Cases
United States v. Angela Santillano, et al
Beginning in and around October 25, 2014, and continuing through on or about April 26, 2015, the defendants stole mail which included checks. The defendants then attempted to cash stolen checks. This was accomplished through the production of counterfeit mail keys which enabled them to gain access. The purpose of this crime was for the conspirators to enrich and support themselves and their methamphetamine use.
United States v. Malcolm, Ross III, and Brantley
Between November 2012 and May 2013, MALCOLM, BRANTLEY, ROSS and others conspired to file false federal income tax returns in the names of individuals without the individuals’ knowledge. As part of the scheme, BRANTLEY, ROSS and others advertised to victims that they were eligible for “Obama stimulus money” or “government funding” through a prepaid debit card, and then obtained personal identifying information from the victims. MALCOLM, who operated a business in Arizona called “Biggest Refund Taxes,” used the victims’ names, dates of birth, and Social Security Numbers to prepare and file false federal income tax returns. MALCOLM then directed tax refunds totaling more than $2.5 million to be deposited partially into bank accounts controlled by MALCOLM, her family members, her employees, and ROSS, and partially into bank accounts linked to prepaid debit cards that were sent to the victims.
United States v. Neil Godfrey
This case involves a third-party data processor (Godfrey), who helped fraudulent merchants make small, unauthorized withdrawals from the bank accounts of hundreds of thousands of victims. Godfrey did this through his business, Check Site, which worked directly with banks that would not have worked with the fraudulent merchants directly. Godfrey also helped the fraudulent merchants to conceal their activity from the banks through various means.
United States v. Brian Howard
On September 26, 2014, Brian Howard set fire to the Chicago Air Traffic Control Center in Aurora, Illinois. The fire resulted in widespread cancellations and delays in air travel throughout the country.
United States v. Chad Klingman
Chad Kligman, 31, in the Philadelphia area was recently charged with running a multi-million dollar telemarketing scam. According to the information, the defendants duped more than 70,000 people into buying what they falsely marketed as a general-purpose credit card that customers could use to buy merchandise over the internet and improve their credit.
United States v. Adrian Rubin, et al
Adrian Rubin, in the Philadelphia area was recently charged with running a multi-million dollar telemarketing scam. According to the information, the defendants duped more than 70,000 people into buying what they falsely marketed as a general-purpose credit card that customers could use to buy merchandise over the internet and improve their credit.
United States v. William M. Apostelos and Connie M. Apostelos
William M. Apostelos and Connie M. Apostelos, along with others, purported to manage multiple investment/asset management companies within the Dayton, Ohio metropolitan area. Hundreds of individuals were fraudulently induced to collectively invest $70 million. Investors were falsely informed their funds would acquire stocks or securities such as through Ameritrade Stock Accounts, Land Deals, Short Term Bridge/Money Loans, Precious Metal Purchases, 401K Management, and/or to charter a bank. W.M. Apostelos purported to hold a mathematics degree from Wright State University and a license to sell securities. Investor funds were used to operate Coleman Capital and Silver Bridle - both owned by C.M. Apostelos, to supplement their household expenses and to further the ‘Ponzi’ scheme. Investors lost collectively over $30 million.
US v. Robert Boling, Jr. et al.
Link to USAO-WDTX Press Release
Five individuals have been charged with coordinating an identify-theft and fraud scheme targeting service members, their dependents, and veterans. The defendants are alleged to have used the stolen personal identifying information (PII) of thousands of military members to access Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs benefits sites and steal millions of dollars.
The defendants’ identity-theft and fraud scheme began in 2014 when Fredrick Brown allegedly stole thousands of military members’ PII, including names, dates of birth, social security numbers, and Department of Defense identification numbers. He is alleged to have then provided the stolen information to Robert Boling, Jr., who exploited the information in various ways together with his Philippines-based co-defendants Allan Kerr and Jongmin Seok. Boling, Kerr, and Seok specifically used the stolen information to compromise a Department of Defense portal designed to enable military members to access benefits information online. Once through the portal, the defendants are alleged to have accessed benefits information. Access to these detailed records enabled the defendants to steal or attempt to steal millions of dollars from military members’ bank accounts. The defendants also stole veterans’ benefits payments. After the defendants had compromised military members’ bank accounts and veterans’ benefits payments, Boling allegedly worked with Trorice Crawford to recruit individuals who would accept the deposit of stolen funds into their bank accounts and then send the funds through international wire remittance services to the defendants and others.
U.S. v. Elizabeth Holmes, et al.
Elizabeth Homes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani are charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud. According to the indictment, the charges stem from allegations Holmes and Balwani engaged in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud investors, and a separate scheme to defraud doctors and patients. Both schemes involved efforts to promote Palo Alto, California based Theranos. Theranos is a private health care and life sciences company with the stated mission to revolutionize medical laboratory testing through allegedly innovative methods for drawing blood, testing blood, and interpreting the resulting patient data.
United States v. Kristopher Lee Dallmann et al.
Eight individuals, including Kristopher Lee Dallmann and Darryl Julius Polo, have been charged with conspiring to violate federal criminal copyright law by running an entity called Jetflicks, an online, subscription-based service headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, that permitted users to stream and, at times, download copyrighted television programs without the permission of the relevant copyright owners. According to the indictment, the defendants reproduced tens of thousands of copyrighted television episodes without authorization and made these infringing programs available to tens of thousands of paid subscribers located throughout the U.S. At one point, Jetflicks claimed to have more than 183,200 different television episodes. One of the defendants, Polo, left Jetflicks and created a competing site based in Las Vegas called iStreamItAll (ISIA) that at one point claimed to have 118,479 different television episodes and 10,980 individual movies. Like Jetflicks, ISIA offered content for a regular subscription fee to viewers around the United States, and ISIA publicly asserted that it had more content than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Prime. In addition, the two services were not only available to subscribers over the internet but specifically designed to work on many different types of devices, platforms and software including numerous varieties of computer operating systems, smartphones, tablets, smart televisions, video game consoles, digital media players, set-top boxes and web browsers.
Both Jetflicks and ISIA allegedly obtained infringing works from pirate websites around the world—including some of the globe’s biggest torrent and Usenet sites specializing in unauthorized content such as The Pirate Bay, RARBG, and TorrentDay—using automated computer scripts to locate, download, process, and store the illegal files, and then quickly make that content available on servers in Canada to United States subscribers for streaming and/or downloading. Essentially, Jetflicks and ISIA were two of the largest streaming services in the United States but did not compensate copyright owners for streaming and making available for download the unauthorized works they offered to their paid subscribers.
Besides the conspiracy charge, Dallmann has been charged with additional counts of criminal copyright infringement as well as money laundering in connection with Jetflicks, and Polo faces similar additional charges in connection with ISIA. More information can be found in the DOJ press release.
US v. Blue Bell Creameries; US v. Paul Kruse (related)
Blue Bell’s former president, Paul Kruse, was indicted separately on October 20, 2020 in connection with his alleged role in covering up from customers what the company knew about the contaminated ice cream. The case against Mr. Kruse went to trial in August 2022 and resulted in a mistrial. Mr. Kruse subsequently agreed to a plea agreement related to Blue Bell’s distribution of listeria-tainted ice cream in 2015. The plea agreement and criminal information charging Mr. Kruse with a criminal misdemeanor violation of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act for causing the distribution of adulterated food in interstate commerce was filed in the Western District of Texas. The court set a plea and sentencing hearing for Mr. Kruse on March 28 at 4 pm at the federal courthouse in Austin, Texas. The following is information relevant to the case against Mr. Kruse.
Court Assigned: The case of U.S. v. Kruse is assigned to the Honorable Robert Pitman, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, U.S. Federal Building and Courthouse, 501 West Fifth Street, Suite 5300, Austin, TX, 787011
The information on this website will be updated as new developments arise in the case.